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Business Rate Supplements Bill

I am conscious of the time and the sheer joy that overcame the Committee as we heard the government Front Bench concede an amendment. That has been a rare treat and worth sitting through four hours for. We appreciate it. I say at the start, in case people are getting a little agitated, that I do not intend to speak to the amendment for more than a couple of minutes or delay the Committee further. However, I want to raise an important point. The two amendments in this group would alter the legislation to say that, where an alteration is made due to an error which is not the fault of the ratepayer, there shall be no retrospective effect. As the amendment is phrased, I can almost hear a collective sigh of, "Well, of course there could be no instance where there was no fault; there would be no retrospective element to a business rates supplement". However, I am afraid that we have precedent in the taxes on ports which were levied retrospectively. In May 2006, the Valuation Office Agency undertook a revaluation of 55 statutory ports in England and Wales. It concluded in 2008 that there was a case for revaluation of those single businesses and then decided to backdate it to 2005. The effect was to fling many viable businesses into severe difficulty at this critical time. In fact, a number of them have been forced into insolvency. Technically, although they have longer to pay off the arrears—they can do so over eight years—this has meant that the effect of those arrears must be held on their balance sheets. The Treasury Select Committee has looked into this and has argued that there should be no retrospection on this particular tax. It was debated, as I am sure the Minister recalls, on the Floor of the House on 18 March. There, the Government were defeated by 77 votes to 69, if my memory serves me correctly. Therefore, there was a moral case for tackling this iniquitous tax, which is placing so many businesses in difficulty at present. The point of tabling the amendment at this stage is simply to say that it is unthinkable that there would be circumstances where the events suggested in the amendment would give rise to a charge on the taxpayer. Therefore, in the interests of consistency, the Government should extend the spirit of joy and generosity which has broken out here in the Moses Room to these needy businesses which have not been at fault but have been clobbered with this retrospective tax of £124 million. I beg to move.